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I'm starting to work with a new adult student and I'm familiar with a quite few good method books out there but I'd love to hear your perspective (adults over 20yrs old who started from scratch and learned from a method book) a genuine opinion. Which method did you work with and liked (as specific as you can--what did you like about it?



Thanks and Happy holiday to everyone

alfred's

Celebration Perspectives from Frederick Harris Music.

Start with one of the others but after a few years this is where it is at, the real deal. A graded course series. It ain't a walk in the park. It has brought tears to my eyes more than once but I do see progress.

I started with Alfred's Adult Basic Piano course.
I have no other series to compare it to.

The following is based on Adult Level One Basic Course.

What I liked:
Lessons take nothing for granted.
Each lesson builds on the previous in a very linear fashion.
Virtually every new lesson/song emphasizes a new terminology, technique, concept, etc...
Throughout the book it reference other Alfreed's books you are ready for or should use to supplement.

What I did NOT care for:
(Take these with a grain of salt, I realize I am speaking of the basic course, not the All-In One, and I know there are supplementary materials)
Not enough details regarding technique/posture.
Not enough theory.
Not enough background/history.
Most songs (for me) were boring, dry.
Almost no mention of playing musically or evoking emotion.

Overall, I feel it is a solid series that a motivated self taught person can benefit form. That being said, I think it is a great series for a teacher to use with their supplementary materials and instruction.

Thank you very much Triryche for the detailed answer. I appreciate you taking the time and answering my question. I am familiar with the Alfred and it was important to me to get a genuine feedback from a student perspective, from a student who's actually worked with the book.

Stevester...thank you. I'm not familiar with the Celebration Perspectives from Frederick Harris Music. besides the tears how are you enjoying the music? Is it dry/fun/boring/exciting ?

Thank you all

With my adult and older beginners I work with; Alfred's I used to play the piano, Hal Leonards Adult lessons and Piano Adventures Adult lessons.

Hal Leonard works great to get started with, the students progress quickly with note reading and the music has a nice accompaniment CD. However after a while my students get bored, and I find it less useful too, so we usually switch over to Alfreds "I used to play piano" after 1 and 1/2 book. The Piano Adventures has a nice repertoire- but I find it somewhat "patchy" in the progress. The Celebration series I love! The repertoire is for (almost) all tastes and there are some real gems there. Very well thought through material and levels. I usually begin later, though with books 3, 4 and 5 an on where the music in my opinion gets more interesting!

I like Celebration very much. The music covers all periods and since there is so much of it in each Grade I have known students that have only focused on periods/or pieces they like. The series also offers CDs which you can purchase and listen to to help you polish a piece after working on it for a while.

Of note, I supplement with Kjos (Master Works Series) and I am now working with Kabalevsky as well as Celebration.

Celebration is only going to be for the more serious student and only after a little warm up. It is very left hand intense, you won't find any chords here.